Thursday preview: Jackson Hole kicks off; Harbour Energy, CRH report

All eyes will be on the start of the Jackson Hole symposium in Wyoming on Thursday, while half-year results are due from CRH, Harbour Energy and Hunting.

Deutsche Bank said in a note: "This symposium takes place after this week's FOMC minutes and resilient economic data prompted Treasury yields to reach another decade-high.

"All eyes will be on how Fed officials, including Chair Powell on Friday, react to the strength of the economy and potential inflation risks ahead of the September 20th meeting. Bear in mind we will see another round of jobs and inflation data before that."

On the corporate front, UBS said it expects first-half numbers for building materials company CRH to show revenue of $16.15bn, up 8% year-on-year and EBITDA of $2.39bn.

"CRH management guided for H123 EBITDA to be more than $2.20bn at the April 2023 trading update as well as guiding to improvements in H123 revenue and margin versus H122," it noted.

Michael Hewson, market analyst at CMC Markets, said this week’s H1 numbers from Harbour Energy are expected to see revenues fall to $2bn from last year’s $2.6bn, due to lower oil and gas prices. This is expected to translate into a loss of $0.05c a share.

On the macro front, US initial jobless claims are out at 1330 BST, along with durable goods orders. Deutsche Bank’s US economists see the durable goods gauge slowing to -0.5% month-on-month in July after a 4.6% advance in June.

Thursday August 24

INTERIMS

CRH (CDI), Harbour Energy , Hunting, Macfarlane Group, Tribal Group

INTERIM DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

Hercules Site Services

INTERIM EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Arbuthnot Banking Group, Atalaya Mining, Aviva, Drax Group, Glanbia (CDI), Haleon , Hammerson, Ibstock , Just Group, Legal & General Group, Lookers, Mondi, OSB Group , Plus500 Ltd (DI), RHI Magnesita N.V. (DI), Rights & Issues Investment Trust , Shaftesbury Capital, St James's Place

QUARTERLY PAYMENT DATE

JPMorgan Asia Growth & Income

QUARTERLY EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Fair Oaks Income Limited 2021 Shs NPV, HICL Infrastructure , Land Securities Group, Vaalco Energy, Inc (DI), Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.NPV (CDI)

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ANNOUNCEMENTS

Continuing Claims (US) (13:30)

Durable Goods Orders (US) (13:30)

Initial Jobless Claims (US) (13:30)

Q3

Benchmark Holdings

GMS

Thomaslloyd Energy Impact Trust

FINALS

Cropper (James), Hays, Redcentric

SPECIAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Northern Bear, Plus500 Ltd (DI)

AGMS

Concurrent Technologies, Cyanconnode Holdings, Nuformix, Oryx International Growth Fund Ltd.

FINAL DIVIDEND PAYMENT DATE

QinetiQ Group

FINAL EX-DIVIDEND DATE

Artemis Alpha Trust, Auto Trader Group , Brickability Group , Cohort, Diageo, Henderson Smaller Companies Inv Trust, Molten Ventures VCT , Northern Bear, XPS Pensions Group